I got diagnosed with PDD NOS a year ago. I am on disability right now because I got overstrained. In order to find out for which job I am suited, I am doing volunteerwork now, one day a week. I started with my volunteerjob, as a receptionst in a gym for women only, last January.

Today I really had an awfull day at my volunteerjob. And it wasn't the first time, that it went like this. Like other times, I actually wanted to run away screaming, because the pressure was building up this much!! There were no classes during the summer vacation, which is over now and I was reminded of that pressure again.
Some things are badly organised. We always have way too little change in the cash register. Only coins. It happens regularly, that a client pays with € 50,- and has to pay € 35,- and I don't have enough change in the cash register. I complained about that and asked if we could always at least have € 15,- in bills in the cash register, but we can't, because it can get stolen.

Today it happened again. My boss often gives back change out of her own wallet and then takes the € 50,- bill out of the cashregister and then pays € 35,- with her debitcard to the gym. But I refuse to solve the problem like that. I refuse to walk around with more than € 20,- cash on me, so that when I get pickpocketed or lose my wallet, I don't lose that much cash. I pay all my groceries, shopping, snacks, movie tickets etc. with my debitcard, I hardly ever use cash. It is also easier later on to see where my money went, if I see payments to stores on my checking account transcripts, instead of unspecified cash withdrawals. And when I just started at the gym, there were times that I didn't even had € 35,- in my checking account!! (I didn't get my disabilty until the end of February.) Fortunately, those days are over.

I can walk into the office, and check in a purse in a closet if there are bills there, but the last time I checked, I couldn't even find that purse! And often there is also only a € 50,- bill in there, because someone else already took out the € 10,- and € 5,- bills. But to go to the office, I actually have to leave the gym and walk past all the women that are waiting in line to get in, so I really don't find that practical, especially when it is crowded.

Today some new members signed up. Signing them up takes a few minutes work, even more if they have a card from the city, the C-pas, that low income people can get, with an amount on it that they can spend on things like our gym. We register those C -passes in our database, but they are valid from July until June, so a lot of these passes expired and then I also have to enter the new passes into the system and make copies of them for in the archive.
When I am busy signing a member up, other members can swipe their membership card and if they lit up green, I can let them walk in. But today someone lit up red, while I was busy subscribing a new member. So I told her that she had to pay. She told me that she had an agreement with my boss, that her subscription got prolonged, because she went on vacation, there was a message in the system. To check that I had to stop enscribing the new members, to go to the administration screen and there was indeed a message. A lot of members always forget their membership cards, so if they give me their membership number, I can check their status as well. But a lot of them don't even know that. So I have to look them up in the administraton system, with their birthdates, but in order to do that, I then must stop subscribing a new member again, or let them wait in line.

After I checked for the message in the system, I had to find the entry from the new member again, by searching on her birthdate in the database. All the while members are coming in, all with expired subscriptions, because everybody is returning after the summer, so I can't let them simply walk in, but the class is about to start, so they all want me to hurry.

So I took the cards from the members that can pay with a C-pas, so that I could sell them subscriptions with their C-passes, while they were working out, and copy th enew passes and enter them into the database. We also have a faulty database, so I often have to press save five times, before it saves my work, or I even have to restart the system, which also takes a while. So the pressure is really building up inside of me. Which often gets me confused. I work in two different screens and sometimes I am working with the data from the wrong member because of that. Today I wanted to sell a subscription and a membership to a 17 year old, but she got an adult rate. I knew that that wasn't right, but it took me a few times before I realised that although I looked her up in the administration screen, the cash register screen was still on the membership of another member.

There was also a client that bought a subscription yesterday from my fairly new colleague for three months for € 55,-, with her C-pas, but her card lit up red. It turned out that my colleague only wrote off the € 55,- of the C-pas, but forgot to add the subscription to her membership. So she had a receipt of - € 55,- while it should have been € 0,- I had to figure that out as well and then correct it. My colleague also didn't enter her new U-pas into the system and the member didn't bring it with her. Fortunately she did make a photocopy of the card, so I could get the hard copy to see what she had done. My colleague was working out so I called her to the cashregister and asked her what she did. She said that she even called our boss yesterday, to ask if she did all of it right, and our boss said that she did, but she didn't. So I had to explain to her what she did wrong and what she should pay attention to, to see if she is doing it right.

I find that very stressfull and I am sure that my colleague only made that mistake yesterday, because she was under pressure as well.

While I was subscribing two new members, one of them wanted to pay with the € 50,- bill, but I only had a € 20,- bill in the cashregister and a little amount of coins, not nearly enough, so I had to find a solution for that. Then a member that had left her membershipcard and her C-pas with me, left and asked her C-pas and membershipcard back, on her way out. I accidentally gave her the wrong membership card. When I realised my mistake I wanted to call or email her, but both her phonenumber and her emailadress weren't entered into the system, so I couldn't even reach her to explain the situation!!

I solved the other problem by letting the new member pay € 30,- in cash and € 5,- with her debitcard, so that I could give her the € 20,- bill from the cashregister. But then I was € 5,- in the register short and € 5,- too much on our account, so I had to write that down as well, to avoid confusion. Unfortunately, some of our members don't have any money in their checking account, so this solution then doesn't work. According to my boss, we shouldn't register them at all in these cases and start the whole process again the next time! We aren't even allowed to save the paper forms on which they filled in all of their personal information! That is ludacrous! I really find my boss incompetent. And it is also not very client friendly. If you bring € 50,- to pay € 35,- to a gym, it is reasonable to get sold an subscription and be able to work out.

After I found out my mistake this evening, about the switched membershipcards, I could cry.

It is just too much stress, that I should solve on my own. And it would just help so much if we at least started every shift with a € 10,- and a € 5,- bill in the register and if we were allowed to at least save the filled forms till the new members return. The management just makes this job too hard on us!

I think that I should quit this volunteerjob. It is too much stress, what do you think?

Yes, it's time to find something else. The aggravation isn't worth it. Is there a public library or no-kill animal shelter near you?

There is stress in any job where you actually have to work. I guess I do not really see a issue, if there is no change, you call the boss. Don't worry, don't over think it, it is his problem, not yours.

But if you can not handle it, yes go do something else.

Yes, it's time to find something else. The aggravation isn't worth it. Is there a public library or no-kill animal shelter near you?

There is apublic library around the corner:-D!

I have no idea about the animal shelter, but thank you for your answer!

I was afraid that I was excagerating.


There is stress in any job where you actually have to work. I guess I do not really see a issue, if there is no change, you call the boss. Don't worry, don't over think it, it is his problem, not yours.

But if you can not handle it, yes go do something else.

I already told my boss, but she sees no problem. Like I explained, she uses the money out of her own wallet as change.

Check with the library about volunteering. I started our volunteer program in 1993 and happily trained/supervised an average of 25 of them as they did a huge variety of jobs.

Check with the library about volunteering. I started our volunteer program in 1993 and happily trained/supervised an average of 25 of them as they did a huge variety of jobs.

Thank you. I have an appointment with my physical therapist tomorrow at 1.30 pm or actually, later today. My physical therapist is only one block away from the library, while the library is like five blocks away from my street, so after I am done at the physical therapist, I will walk int the library and ask.

Next Tuesday I have my next appointment with my psychologist, so I can also share with her what I found out in the library.

I already Googled volunteer work, but it was more free baby sitting, reading books to little children from migrants, doing groceries for the eldery etc. or even becoming a buddy of someone with Asperger's, that is not really work like.

Some of my best volunteers were Aspies. My high-functioning autistic son has worked for pay at a library for 25 years now. I hope your library has volunteer opportunities. Tell them an American librarian sent you there. :-)

I think you did all the right things to bring the confusion and poor management of this volunteer place to light. In so doing, your boss knows full well the difficulties you face at the position you are in, and the others doing the same job, as well. You have explained what happens during your 'shift' there in enough detail to show that it isn't you that is the problem, it is the position itself.

You are free labour. It matters not that what you do is free, the job is made very difficult with a manager who knows you aren't getting paid at the end of the day, but what you do, puts money in her pocket- and nothing goes to a wage. But, to be so disrespected, and have such high expectations put on you with no reward at the end of it, and place you in a position where she knows full well what goes on- goes beyond anything to show respect, appreciation, attention to obvious flaws, and fixes of flaws.

Try not to think of this as something of a flaw in yourself. Had you been given the right tools and equipment to handle even the most minor of problems (no cash for instance), you may well have enjoyed your place there. It is not you- it is the situation created there, long before you signed up to volunteer.

Yes, move on, and remember you are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity, no matter what you do, or whether it is paid work or unpaid volunteer work. Don't let your personal standards, dignity, and confidence be eroded by the experience at the gym. And be more cautious next time you volunteer.

Some of my best volunteers were Aspies. My high-functioning autistic son has worked for pay at a library for 25 years now. I hope your library has volunteer opportunities. Tell them an American librarian sent you there. :-)

They don't need any volunteers now. I can subscribe to their newsletter, that is where they will publish openings.

They said that in the two worst neighbourhoods, they often need people to give language lessons to the migrants and refugees there. But that is at the edge of town and I don't know if I have the patience to teach people our language. I am very good at it myself, so I often have to fight the urge to correct native speakers. I often scream at my TV, when they make a mistake. On the other hand, as a language teacher I am allowed to correct people's language. But those two neighbourhoods aren't that safe either, so I am afraid to ride my bicycle there after dark (in the winter it already gets dark here at 4 pm). I always try to stay in the safe neighbourhoods. I don't want to pay money to get on the citybus, because then I will get poorer from doing my volunteerjob.

I think you did all the right things to bring the confusion and poor management of this volunteer place to light. In so doing, your boss knows full well the difficulties you face at the position you are in, and the others doing the same job, as well. You have explained what happens during your 'shift' there in enough detail to show that it isn't you that is the problem, it is the position itself.

You are free labour. It matters not that what you do is free, the job is made very difficult with a manager who knows you aren't getting paid at the end of the day, but what you do, puts money in her pocket- and nothing goes to a wage. But, to be so disrespected, and have such high expectations put on you with no reward at the end of it, and place you in a position where she knows full well what goes on- goes beyond anything to show respect, appreciation, attention to obvious flaws, and fixes of flaws.

Try not to think of this as something of a flaw in yourself. Had you been given the right tools and equipment to handle even the most minor of problems (no cash for instance), you may well have enjoyed your place there. It is not you- it is the situation created there, long before you signed up to volunteer.

Yes, move on, and remember you are entitled to be treated with respect and dignity, no matter what you do, or whether it is paid work or unpaid volunteer work. Don't let your personal standards, dignity, and confidence be eroded by the experience at the gym. And be more cautious next time you volunteer.

Thank you. My boss is the only paid employee of the gym. But it is a foundation, so it isn't about making profit, it is about giving poor migrant Muslim women a place to work out. It was founded by a Moroccan woman, that wanted her aunts to have an affordable place to start moving. We are subsidised by the city and the C-pas is of course also a from of subsidy.

We volunteers get a little fee, that we are allowed to keep on top of a disability income, unemployment allowance or welfare, but it is of course lower than minimum wage and we have a team outing every year, this year we went to a city in our neighbouring country and also got lunch and a small dinner there.

I am also starting to think that these are problems particular for this gym, but other gyms don't work with volunteers, as far as I know.

I am also in a peergroup for autistic people. I told them about the gym as well and they were also shocked by what I told them about the attitude of my boss at the gym.